What's Actually on a PAT Certificate (and What to Check)

The report lands in your inbox as a PDF. You open it, see a company logo, a date, the word "satisfactory" and a signature, and you file it. Six months later somebody asks whether the extension leads in the training room were tested, and the document you filed cannot tell you. That's a thin report, and they're more common than they should be.

The uncomfortable starting point

There's no legally prescribed format for PAT records. In fact, the HSE notes that there is no legal requirement to keep records of testing at all, though it recognises they're a useful management tool. Which means the quality of what you get is entirely down to your supplier, and the range is enormous. Some reports are genuinely useful asset registers. Some are a single page saying everything passed.

What a useful record contains

An itemised list, not a summary. Every appliance individually: a unique ID, what it is, where in the building it lives. If your report doesn't tell you what was tested, it can't tell you what wasn't.

Test results per item. Not just pass or fail, but the class of appliance and the actual readings where relevant. Readings can add useful detail where the test method, instrument and connection points are sufficiently consistent to make comparison meaningful. A single change in a reading is not automatically evidence of deterioration and should be interpreted by a competent person.

The failures, and what happened to them. Anything that failed, why, and the action taken. Repaired and retested, replaced, removed from service. This is the section that shows a duty being discharged rather than a task being performed.

Dates and identification. When it was done, who did it, and their competence. Plus, ideally, the next recommended date per group of items rather than one blanket date for everything.

How to spot a thin one in ten seconds

Check whether you can identify every item and its result. Page count alone is not a reliable test, because a concise electronic report may still contain a complete itemised register. Then look for the word "quantity". A line reading "extension leads: 14, all pass" is not an itemised record, it's an aggregate, and it's useless the moment you need to know which fourteen.

The part that's genuinely yours

Here's where we'd push back gently on our own industry. The certificate is evidence that the provider recorded the stated work; it is not conclusive proof that every item was tested correctly. It doesn't prove your equipment is safe today, and it can't, because it's a snapshot of one afternoon. What makes the record valuable is you using it: checking new equipment gets added, checking failures got resolved, checking the items that vanished off this year's list actually left the building rather than being missed.

A register you maintain is an asset. A certificate you file is an ornament. Our PAT testing page explains what we provide as standard, and there's more on scheduling in our guide to setting testing intervals by risk assessment.

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Want to know whether your current records would stand up? Send us a copy and we'll tell you honestly what's missing.